Introducing Aquafox: A New Hope (TenFourFox fork)

[thewireless]

Hello "obsolete" Mac users,

Long-time lurker here! I only recently made an account and didn’t really want to self-promote, but I could use your feedback, so here it goes:

I'm the maintainer of Aquafox, a fork of TenFourFox, very much like InterWebPPC. In fact, it picks up where InterWebPPC left off by continuing to provide up-to-date compiled binaries of TenFourFox, along with a few more optimizations.

Update: I’m pleased to announce that the new version, 1.0.0, has now been released! Thank you to everyone who provided feedback during the beta phase.

I released the first beta on July 25th this year, and although I'm not expecting big issues, I still think it's good practise to release the software this way and ask for feedback before launching version 1.0.0. Even if that means the only change is the absence of the beta label.

The README.md on GitHub (link) has a full description and a Q&A, and I’ve written more in-depth about the history, reasoning, and process of the project in the announcement post on my blog on Neocities (link).

So, I'd say download the browser from the releases page on GitHub (link), take it for a spin, and leave a comment. Any form of feedback is appreciated!

 

[mac57mac57]

Hi, thanks for this! I have downloaded it and will give it a whirl on my PowerMac G5 DP 2.3 GHz, 4.5 MB RAM. I will report back what I find!

I've been very impressed with InterWebPPC, so a continuation of it into the future is VERY welcome... thanks so much!

 

[pipetogrep]

@thewireless I'll give it a spin with my toolkit. https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/the-unofficial-tenfourfox-toolkit

If it builds, I'll add it as an option so people can build it for themselves.

Edit: Thanks for this!

 

[thewireless]

@thewireless I'll give it a spin with my toolkit. https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/the-unofficial-tenfourfox-toolkit

If it builds, I'll add it as an option so people can build it for themselves.

Thank you! I've actually been building it myself using a modified version of your script, which allows me to specify the branch (I use both a dev and a main branch). I forked your repository and uploaded the script (link); however, there is currently an error in that specific version that results in linking errors, as noted in an issue (link). I plan to fix that at a later date.

 

[pipetogrep]

Thank you! I've actually been building it myself using a modified version of your script, which allows me to specify the branch (I use both a dev and a main branch). I forked your repository and uploaded the script (link); however, there is currently an error in that specific version that results in linking errors, as noted in an issue (link). I plan to fix that at a later date.

methinks it's time I add an option to build a specific branch. First I need to fix the fact that my last version is missing the strip7 binary. 🤦‍♂️

 

[pipetogrep]

OK, the strip7 fix is done. @thewireless, I'm working adding the ability to specific a branch to build from when the script runs. Hopefully that will be of some help to your efforts. If there's anything else you can think of, feel free to send me a PR.

 

[thewireless]

OK, the strip7 fix is done. @thewireless, I'm working adding the ability to specific a branch to build from when the script runs. Hopefully that will be of some help to your efforts. If there's anything else you can think of, feel free to send me a PR.

Which version of your toolkit had strip7 missing? The file was installed on my machine, but I updated it anyway using the installer hosted on Macintosh Garden and recompiled Aquafox. Interestingly, the build is now one byte smaller than the previous build.

 

[pipetogrep]

Which version of your toolkit had strip7 missing?

The previous Tiger version. I downloaded it from the garden, reinstalled, and was running into build errors because I had left that binary out. I still need to check the Leopard version.

 

[pipetogrep]

OK @thewireless. Aquafox and the ability to specify a build branch has been added. I'm open to your feedback on how it works for you.

I checked out your blog post, btw. Good stuff and thanks again for doing this!

 

[ThomasJL]

I love that skeuomorphic design. It's far better than any flat design.

 

[pipetogrep]

@thewireless I am happy to report that I was able to build and run Aquafox successfully! I built it from the dev branch. Which branch will be the official one after it's released? Main?

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

Hello "obsolete" Mac users,

Long-time lurker here! I only recently made an account and didn’t really want to self-promote, but I could use your feedback, so here it goes:

I'm the maintainer of Aquafox, a fork of TenFourFox, very much like InterWebPPC. In fact, it picks up where InterWebPPC left off by continuing to provide up-to-date compiled binaries of TenFourFox, along with a few more optimizations.

I released the first beta on July 25th this year, and although I'm not expecting big issues, I still think it's good practise to release the software this way and ask for feedback before launching version 1.0.0. Even if that means the only change is the absence of the beta label.

The README.md on GitHub (link) has a full description and a Q&A, and I’ve written more in-depth about the history, reasoning, and process of the project in the announcement post on my blog on Neocities (link).

View attachment 2402231

So, I'd say download the browser from the releases page on GitHub (link), take it for a spin, and leave a comment. Any form of feedback is appreciated!

Love it! Thank you for sharing with us!

 

[thewireless]

@thewireless I am happy to report that I was able to build and run Aquafox successfully! I built it from the dev branch. Which branch will be the official one after it's released? Main?

That would indeed be the main branch. Builds from the dev branch can be considered nightlies. I do development in the dev branch, and once I believe it's ready to be part of the new version, it will be merged into the main branch. This approach ensures that the main branch remains stable and aligned with the released binaries.

 

[thewireless]

Hi, thanks for this! I have downloaded it and will give it a whirl on my PowerMac G5 DP 2.3 GHz, 4.5 MB RAM. I will report back what I find!

I've been very impressed with InterWebPPC, so a continuation of it into the future is VERY welcome... thanks so much!

I've been intending to reply to your PM for a few days, but every time I try, the message gets caught in the spam filters. Perhaps there are some restrictions in place for new users. I have contacted support, but it seems they don't work on weekends.

 

[mac57mac57]

Ditto, thewireless. I posted a response yesterday (I think) indicating that I was now using AquaFox and really liking it, but the post seems to have been filtered out - restrictions on new users? Anyway, AquaFox is good work... thanks!

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

Other than security updates and patches, how much real optimizations are left to be done?

I’d like to know more detail as about what internet-related features get added. Is there a new coding format for CSS or HTML or whatever that each new version supports? Bug and rendering fixes or improvements?

I’m not bashing your efforts, just genuinely curious. I really appreciate helping us keep our decades old machines usable for some things!

 

[Raging Dufus]

I've been intending to reply to your PM for a few days, but every time I try, the message gets caught in the spam filters. Perhaps there are some restrictions in place for new users.

I posted a response yesterday (I think) indicating that I was now using AquaFox and really liking it, but the post seems to have been filtered out - restrictions on new users?

Welcome to the forums, both of you! Yes you're correct, there are restrictions on new users. Here is a list of the forum user levels. You have to level up from "newbie" to, I believe, "member" in order to have direct conversations with other users.

 

[thewireless]

Welcome to the forums, both of you! Yes you're correct, there are restrictions on new users. Here is a list of the forum user levels. You have to level up from "newbie" to, I believe, "member" in order to have direct conversations with other users.

Interesting! We've been able to send a single message to each other once, but a third message in that conversation still seems to be off-limits.

 

[thewireless]

Other than security updates and patches, how much real optimizations are let to be done?

I’d like to know more detail as about what internet-related features get added. Is there a new coding format for CSS or HTML or whatever that each new version supports? Bug and rendering fixes or improvements?

I’m not bashing your efforts, just genuinely curious. I really appreciate helping us keep our decades old machines usable for some things!

Security updates and patches are something Cameron Kaiser does occasionally, but I could look into them in the future, even if that just means getting to know the codebase better. Since we're essentially working with Firefox 45, a browser from 2016, there isn't much that can be done that Cameron hasn't already addressed. However, there is a list on his GitHub page (link) of items that may need improvement. I believe further optimization is possible, for example, through the removal of unnecessary features; perhaps we could take a few cues from Arctic Fox's approach.
@z970 has provided us with TenFourFoxPEP for a snappier experience, and @Ryan Bremer is periodically posting Greasemonkey userscripts to fix some broken websites. However, we must accept that this is still an old browser for even older computers; it simply can't keep up with the web forever.
The purpose of this project is to follow in InterWebPPC's footsteps: to provide up-to-date precompiled binaries of TenFourFox, but it isn't much more than that.

 

[Siliconguy]

I downloaded the 7450 version of Aquafox and can report it works on my 2002 Quicksilver dual-CPU.

Given the main use of a browser on that machine is simply to look up information I suspect you could cut out some of the code. For instance I'm certainly not going to do my banking on that machine.

I have G5 too, I'll try that version eventually.

I do appreciate the effort. Thank you,

 

[pipetogrep]

Security updates and patches are something Cameron Kaiser does occasionally, but I could look into them in the future, even if that just means getting to know the codebase better. Since we're essentially working with Firefox 45, a browser from 2016, there isn't much that can be done that Cameron hasn't already addressed. However, there is a list on his GitHub page (link) of items that may need improvement. I believe further optimization is possible, for example, through the removal of unnecessary features; perhaps we could take a few cues from Arctic Fox's approach.
@z970 has provided us with TenFourFoxPEP for a snappier experience, and @Ryan Bremer is periodically posting Greasemonkey userscripts to fix some broken websites. However, we must accept that this is still an old browser for even older computers; it simply can't keep up with the web forever.
The purpose of this project is to follow in InterWebPPC's footsteps: to provide up-to-date precompiled binaries of TenFourFox, but it isn't much more than that.

I can think of one thing left to do. I attempted to do so myself and failed. The browser constantly reverts to defaulting to Yahoo! search no matter how many times we change it. Fixing that would be a great quality of life improvement.

 

[thewireless]

I can think of one thing left to do. I attempted to do so myself and failed. The browser constantly reverts to defaulting to Yahoo! search no matter how many times we change it. Fixing that would be a great quality of life improvement.

How exactly does this manifest? I believe Yahoo is indeed the US specific default. For me, it shows Google as the default search engine, but when I switch to DuckDuckGo, it remembers that change.

 

[mac57mac57]

An amazing thing happened yesterday: I used AquaFox to log in to my bank's online banking web site. That may sound pretty ordinary, but it isn't: I accomplished this on a PowerMac G5 2.3 Ghz.!

I have NEVER been able to log in to any financial institution from my G5... all the institution's sites always tell me that I am using an obsolete browser and must upgrade before I can proceed.

The ONE time, years ago, when I managed to fool the bank into thinking I WAS using a modem browser, the bank's page literally took MINUTES to render. A G5 just was't up to the bloated load the bank web site put on it.

SO... this event is even more unique: not only does my bank accept AquaFox as a modern browser, AquaFox seems to have enough optimizations in it that the site was rendered in a matter of seconds, not minutes. That is truly amazing!

AquaFox will indeed keep our G5s relevant for a while longer - thank you!!

I should note that all of this happened with AquaFox running under Sorbet Leopard, so it's optimizations may have added to the overall experience as well.

 

[Ryan Bremer]

Security updates and patches are something Cameron Kaiser does occasionally, but I could look into them in the future, even if that just means getting to know the codebase better. Since we're essentially working with Firefox 45, a browser from 2016, there isn't much that can be done that Cameron hasn't already addressed. However, there is a list on his GitHub page (link) of items that may need improvement. I believe further optimization is possible, for example, through the removal of unnecessary features; perhaps we could take a few cues from Arctic Fox's approach.
@z970 has provided us with TenFourFoxPEP for a snappier experience, and @Ryan Bremer is periodically posting Greasemonkey userscripts to fix some broken websites. However, we must accept that this is still an old browser for even older computers; it simply can't keep up with the web forever.
The purpose of this project is to follow in InterWebPPC's footsteps: to provide up-to-date precompiled binaries of TenFourFox, but it isn't much more than that.

Thanks for crediting me!

 

[swamprock]

Works great on my 1.42ghz Mini, although iCloud.com doesn't work with it, complaining about being an obsolete browser. Granted, I didn't try a different user agent.

Great work!